WASHINGTON - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's first-ever limits on air toxics, including emissions of mercury, arsenic and acid gases, preserving a far-reaching rule the White House had touted as central to President Obama's environmental agenda. In a 2-to-1 decision, the court ruled that the mercury rule “was substantively and procedurally valid,” turning aside challenges brought both by Republican-led states that had argued the rule was onerous and environmental groups that had contended it did not go far enough.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court next week will consider for the first time whether states may enforce laws that make it a crime to knowingly publish false statements about political candidates. The justices will hear an antiabortion group's free-speech challenge to an Ohio law that was invoked in 2010 by then-Rep. Steve Driehaus, a Democrat. He had voted for President Obama's healthcare law and was facing a tough race for reelection. The antiabortion group Susan B. Anthony List launched a campaign to unseat Driehaus, preparing to run billboard ads saying, "Shame on Steve Driehaus!

An Israeli court has punished a Palestinian prisoner whose semen was smuggled from jail. Abdul Karim Rimawi was fined about $1,499 Thursday and deprived of family visits for two months, according to a statement by the Palestinian Prisoner Club Assn. The emailed statement read, "The punishment of Rimawi is the first such kind of punishment in the history of courts. " Rimawi, who has served 12 years of his 25-year sentence, helped smuggle his semen from jail two years ago. Eight months ago, his wife gave birth to a boy. Clandestine in-vitro fertilization is viewed as the latest form of resistance by Palestinians.

It's not quite “Revenge of the Nerds,” but it still might make a good movie: “Attack of the Unpaid Interns.” Former interns for the 2010 movie “Black Swan” have brought a class-action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures and units of Fox Entertainment Group. They are demanding back pay, damages and a court order prohibiting the studio from using unpaid interns. A win for the plaintiffs could bring down the long-standing and widespread movie industry practice of exploiting lowly assistants who, for the sake of experience and job contacts, are willing to work for free.

DENVER - After the courtroom arguments ended, the hundreds of pages of previously filed legal briefs had been read, and the nervous tears of the three couples at the heart of a Utah same-sex marriage case had dried, it came down to one question: Who gets to define matrimony? On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver pondered that question in a closely watched case that weighs a state's right to enforce its own laws against the rights of individuals to marry regardless of gender.

A Los Angeles police officer was sentenced Wednesday to community labor and three years' probation for falsely testifying about the details of a 2008 drug arrest. Officer Manuel Bernardo Ortiz, who was convicted of one count each of perjury and conspiracy, must perform 900 hours of graffiti removal or work for the California Department of Transportation. Ortiz, 40, was one of three LAPD officers convicted in connection with the arrest of Guillermo Alarcon Jr. Former officers Evan Samuel and Richard Amio were convicted of multiple counts of perjury for testifying falsely during different court proceedings.

The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a law guaranteeing access to birth control and sex education in a country that has high maternal mortality and ranks 53rd worldwide in total fertility rate. Implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, also known as the RH Law, had been on hold for the last year following challenges to it by the Roman Catholic Church and conservative politicians who questioned the...

CAIRO -- An appeals court on Monday dealt another blow to the Egypt's beleaguered liberal activists, upholding three-year prison terms handed down to a trio of figures known for their role in the country's 2011 revolution. The three -- Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohamed Adel -- had been convicted in December of violating a tough anti-protest law that took effect the previous month. The appeals court also upheld heavy fines levied against the trio -- 50,000 Egyptian pounds each, which is more than $7,000.

WASHINGTON -- In a victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from a New Mexico photographer who claimed a free-speech right to refuse to shoot a wedding album for a same-sex couple. The photographer was charged with violating the state's anti-discrimination law, which requires businesses to serve customers and clients without regard to their race, religion or sexual orientation. The case of Elane Photography had drawn wide attention because it posed a religious-freedom challenge to state anti-discrimination laws.